Yes, that was the governor

He's the son of a former president of the United States, the brother of the current president, and governor.

Other than his relationship to two presidents, he's no different from any other Florida governor or governors of other states.

He does public appearances with the goal of getting face time with the public, the people who decide who sits in the big chairs of government.

He speaks of connecting with the people and endorsing and protecting their hopes and dreams for our state and our nation. He tells people how blessed he is to be their governor. And they cheer.He says he is blessed to be the brother of the president while on a visit to St. Augustine last week. And, the crowd responds with more cheers and more applause.

He shakes hands with some 200 people at the Florida National Guard headquarters, giving the impression he could do it all day long. He signs autographs. He has his picture taken more than a few times.

He offers words of thanks and blessing and support to the Guard members and civilian employees. He knows full well some of those uniformed hands he shook could be called to active duty because of the terrorism crisis.

But it wasn't so much his response to the Guard members and civilians that started me thinking about this guy's public persona.

A tape recording that I had made of his speech Thursday and a tape that I had made of his introduction on Sept. 10 at Justina Road Elementary School kind of back up that image.

In replaying my tape of crowd noise at both events, there was some definite and unmistakable crowd noise.

Squeals.

Unmistakably, squeals from his fans.

Jeb Bush, rock star.

I almost expected him to reach back into that big navy SUV in which he arrived at the arsenal and bring out a guitar. I envisioned him strumming a few chords and then leading us all in a rousing, 'God Bless America."

It didn't happen. Maybe another day and in another city.

But in case Bush wants to connect with a patriotic song directly out of St. Augustine's history on his next visit, here's a suggestion.'America."

He learned it in school the way the rest of us did. 'My Country 'tis of thee. Sweet land of liberty."

The song was written in 1740 by British composer Henry Carey. It became England's national anthem years later, 'God Save The King."

It became an American anthem on July 4, 1781, in St. Augustine. Three signers of our country's Declaration of Independence were under house arrest in St. Augustine, after Charleston, S.C., was captured by the British. St. Augustine was a British colony then.

The prisoners were Thomas Heyward Jr., Edward Rutledge and Arthur Middleton. To antagonize their captors, they sang words that Heyward wrote to the tune of 'God Save The King," 'God save the Thirteen States. Thirteen United States. United for all."

The version we know from school came from the 19th century Massachusetts minister, the Rev. Samuel F. Smith and American author Henry Van Dyke. Smith wrote the first two verses, Van Dyke the second two. Obviously, Heyward's version was too dated to survive the ages. We've grown lots from the original 13 states.

But if our governor ever wants to try, he could probably update the lyrics himself. In these days, it is fitting for us to ask 'God bless our 50 states. United one for all."